<p>Can anyone explain the university writing seminar to me? My daughter didn’t get her choices of which one she wanted and she was placed in a class at a lousy time. But my main concern is that it is for the SECOND SEMESTER. If this required course is supposed to help prepare students to be college level writers and to learn what professors expect of them, what happens to the 4 or 5 classes she takes first semester? And why, if she filled out the writing thing right away, would she get put in 2nd semester? Isn’t better options to classes an advantage of smaller schools?
Sorry if this is a bit of a rant, but to even locate which course she got in on the website was confusing for my very tech savvy D and H! Just wanted the beginning to run smoothly and now I’m concerned. Is this how things are going to be??</p>
<p>Was that class at all one of the ones she’d picked? If it still works somewhat the way it did my year, you rank various classes. I think the main factor in addition to what you picked is how popular certain UWS classes. UWS classes are in a somewhat different basket from other classes because they are required for all incoming students so they really have to accommodate the entire first year class. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. It doesn’t have anything to do with timing, they offer a number of the writing seminars both semesters and there will be other kids in the same situation and it’s just a question of what fills up and is probably assigned to a large degree by computer software. You don’t pick any other classes through that kind of ranking system.
[Fall</a> 2010 University Writing Seminars | University Writing Program | Brandeis University](<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/writingprogram/students/fallcourses.html]Fall”>http://www.brandeis.edu/writingprogram/students/fallcourses.html)
[Spring</a> 2011 University Writing Seminars | University Writing Program | Brandeis University](<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/writingprogram/students/springcourses.html]Spring”>http://www.brandeis.edu/writingprogram/students/springcourses.html)</p>
<p>Once registration opens up for incoming students, you can also take a look to see whether any spaces open up in a fall class if that’s important to you:
[Office</a> of the University Registrar | Brandeis University](<a href=“Office of the University Registrar | Brandeis University”>Office of the University Registrar | Brandeis University)
But I wouldn’t worry about it too much, particularly if high school writing hasn’t been a particular problem for you. There are students coming in from all kinds of different high schools in the U.S., some with lots of AP classes, some not, as well as foreigners and Americans who didn’t even go to school in the U.S. (I was one of those) and everyone has to figure out what they’re doing and some people will be taking UWS classes their first semester and some people won’t.
There’s also the writing center in the library, which employs graduate students to help undergrads with writing. I personally usually felt comfortable enough with my writing but I others who took advantage of the opportunity:
[About</a> Us | Writing Center | Brandeis University](<a href=“University Writing Center | Writing Center | University Writing Program | Brandeis University”>University Writing Center | Writing Center | University Writing Program | Brandeis University)
I think you’ll become comfortable with registration system the more you use it (maybe play around with it a bit ahead of time) and soon it won’t seem like a big deal.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be terribly concerned. Neither of my daughters got the writing seminar they wanted and both had their writing classes second semester freshman year. In our case, it was a revisit of the required writing class given in high school… basically one of the points of the freshman writing classes, is the opportunity to be in a small group with only other freshman</p>